Required Reading

Constructing the Outbreak Katherine A. Foss, Professor of Journalism and Strategic Media

JOURNALISM

Foss provided national expertise on the portrayal of the novel coronavirus in the media and in political commentary during the spring crisis. Foss’ latest book, Constructing the Outbreak, demonstrates how news reporting on epidemics communicates more than just information about pathogens; rather, prejudices, political agendas, religious beliefs, and theories of disease also shape the message. Analyzing seven epidemics spanning more than 200 years—from Boston’s smallpox epidemic and Philadelphia’s yellow fever epidemic in the 18th century to outbreaks of diphtheria, influenza, and typhoid in the early 20th century—her book covers how shifts in journalism and medicine influenced the coverage, preservation, and fictionalization of different disease outbreaks. Through this investigation into what has been preserved and forgotten in the collective memory of disease, Foss sheds light on current health care debates, like vaccine hesitancy.

CONSTRUCTING the OUTBREAK

Epidemics in Media & Collective Memory

K A T H E R I N E A. F O S S

I Don’t See Heaven

Jennifer Adan,

MTSU Alumna YOUNG ADULT FICTION

Adan, a California Montessori teacher turned Nashville-based hit songwriter, wrote country music star and The Voice judge Blake Shelton’s No.1 hit “She Wouldn’t Be Gone.” Adan, an MTSU alumna, is not only a songwriter but also a children’s book author who penned I Don’t See Heaven. The book tackles the subject of explaining to a child that a loved one has gone to heaven even though they can’t actually see heaven. Milly & Roots: The Headscarf

Rodrigo Gómez,

Assistant Professor of Media Arts YOUNG ADULT FICTION

Gómez, a Hispanic artist from Colombia, South America, is passionate about immigrant stories. An assistant professor of Animation, who previously worked for FisherPrice Inc., he focuses on content for preschoolers. Gómez’s book Milly & Roots: The Headscarf profiles a little girl who is shocked the first time she sees a strange cloth on her Muslim friend’s mother’s head concealing her face. Confused, the girl asks her grandma about the cloth and is subsequently led on an exciting adventure guided by an uninhibited potato and other imaginary root vegetable friends, where she learns to accept others, even when they are different from her. The Mistakes of Yesterday, the Hopes of Tomorrow: The Story of The Prisonaires

John Dougan,

Professor of Recording Industry MUSIC

Dougan is the author of The Mistakes of Yesterday, the Hopes of Tomorrow: The Story of The Prisonaires. In 1953, five African American inmates of Nashville’s Tennessee State Penitentiary recorded two songs at Sun Studios in Memphis. “Just Walkin’ in the Rain,” the group’s first single, sold more than 30,000 copies in six weeks, which made it one of Sun’s bestsellers in the period before its Elvis Presley recordings.